Debuting On HBO: Small Act, Big Impact - A True Story Of A Kenyan Harvard Law School Graduate

Debuting tonight on HBO, a documentary reveals how one small act can not only change a life, but how the resulting ripple effect could truly change the world.

Chris Mburu is a Harvard Law School graduate and Human Rights activist for the United Nations. He's a smart man, and no doubt worked hard to reach his current level of success, but he has someone else to thank for his opportunities.

Hilde Back from Sweden felt the desire to help in any way she could, so she ended up writing a check each month to send an unknown child to school. That child was Mburu and his education cost $15 a month. Though they had never met, without Back, Mburu may never have escaped the cycle of poverty in his home country of Kenya.

When he got older, Mburu tracked down Back in order to thank her. Director Jennifer Arnold documented their first meeting in A Small Act. In her film, she reveals what is so beautifully exemplified through the connection between Back and Mburu –– the powerful effect one person can have by doing just one small act.

The funds for Mburu were received through a Swedish foundation that helps bright children from poor families go to school. It was because of the foundation, and Back's tiny contributions, that Mburu was able to achieve the greatness he experiences today.

"I kept coming back to the village, and I wanted to do sort of a replica of the Swedish foundation, only that I wanted this to be a Kenyan foundation, helping Kenyan children," said Mburu in the A Small Act trailer.

Considering the rampant political violence in Kenya, Mburu feels knowledge is more necessary than ever. "Once you have a society that is ignorant, it becomes the breeding ground for violence. It becomes the breeding ground for intolerance," he said. "Given what was going on, I really felt it's even more important to educate more children."

So he did start a foundation, and he named it after Hilde Back.

Back was once helped, too, by a stranger who lead her to Sweden in an escape from Nazi Germany. Because of that person, Back is alive today and able to pay the good deed forward. Having received Back's generosity, Mburu was able to live a life filled with opportunities he would have never had otherwise. He is now giving back and helping many other children escape the violence and poverty of Kenya through education. In turn, those children will grow up and continue to change the world for the better. All because of a small act.

"How can you change the world? Where are you going to start?," asked Mburu. "You can't change the entire world as a whole, so sometimes it's just as good to help one child."

A Small Act premieres on HBO tonight (Monday July 12) at 9 p.m. EST.

Source: http://www.daemonstv.com/2010/07/12/a-small-act-hbo-first-look/

Photo and video courtesy of Deamon's TV